Ex-SEAL vouches for raid tale author

A former Navy SEAL commander said Friday that President Barack Obama’s administration hasn’t come clean on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and he hopes a controversial new book by a participant in the operation will shine light on what really happened.

“It was pretty hard to get the straight story out of the administration,” ex-SEAL Commander Chuck Pfarrer said on CNN. “And that became complicated to the extent that there is presently an ongoing congressional investigation over special treatment given to certain members of the media.”

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He later told POLITICO that he felt the White House had been tight lipped to the media and selective with how they portrayed the narrative of the Bin Laden raid. He criticized the access given to Kathryn Bigelow, director of December’s “Zero Dark Thirty” film about the raid.

“I wouldn’t be on such a high horse if I hadn’t watched the administration handpick a Hollywood director and screenwriter to write the script of this mission,” Pfarrer said.

He told CNN, “I am sure the author felt, as I did, that the truth wasn’t being told.”

Pfarrer said that he knows the SEAL who who was involved in the bin Laden raid who wrote “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden” under the pseudonym Mark Owen. The book is expected to be released next month.

“We are all, sort of, two-degrees of separation within the community. It’s very small,” Pfarrer said. “Without naming him, his operation reputation is fine. He served, in fact, on the raid. … I understand the fire he is under. This story has got a lot of moving parts and you have to wonder what story, in fact, he is going to tell.”

He told POLITICO that he’s spoken with Owen’s friends, who told him he’s “staying under the radar” and “getting ready for the firestorm” ahead of the book’s release.

“He’s as hidden as a SEAL can be right now,” Pfarrer told POLITICO.

Pfarrer, who did not participate in the raid, also received criticism for a book he wrote about the mission, “SEAL Target Geronimo.” Pentagon officials denounced the book, calling it a “ fabrication.” Earlier this week, Owen’s real name was made public after various media outlets, including the Associated Press and Fox News, released it.